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A pair of dry cleaning stories rounded off the day's news, one silly, one tragic. The tragic was covered by CBS' David Martin from the Pentagon. It concerned pollution of the groundwater at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina by toxic dry cleaning chemicals. Over the course of three decades, 75,000 people drank from tainted well water at the Marine Corps base and 20,000 children were born there. "The Marines disocovered the contamination in 1982 but allowed the families to keep drinking the water for another five years." A House panel held hearings into birth defects and childhood cancers as 850 former residents have sued for $4bn for death and personal injury.
The silly was also a lawsuit. ABC's Jim Avila (subscription required) told us about the Chung family's Custom Cleaners store in Washington DC, sued for $54m over a pair of missing pants. Roy Pearson, an administrative judge, wants damages for the 1,200 days his pants were lost. On each of those days the three-member Chung family violated its pledge of "guaranteed satisfaction and same day service." Pearson argues that a daily violation is worth $3,000 for each Chung, or $9,000 per day. Throw in $500,000 in emotional damages--"Pearson broke down in tears trying to describe how he was treated"--and $542,000 in legal fees--"even though he is representing himself"--and the $54m is easy to rack up.
The Chungs "found the pants and offered him $12,000 to settle," Avila added. No verdict yet.
